The Ultimate VTOL Challenge

[VictoryNeverFail]

Here at Victory Aerospace, we think that VTOLs are underrated and want to use them more. But we are having a hard time coming up with a  proper design and use. So we did the only logical thing, ask the internet for help!

 

CHALLENGE:

Make a custom VTOL and use it depending on the rank you want.

RULES:

You can't use a stock VTOL, you must build a custom one

No cheats (no infinite fuel or low/no gravity)

All types of engines are allowed

Making history and breaking grounds expansion packs are allowed

No mods except for Kerbal engineer

The VTOL must be manned

RANKS:

Basic atmospheric rank: Fly a VTOL

Advanced atmospheric rank: Fly a VTOL 60km above sea level or higher

Basic orbital rank: Fly a VTOL out of the atmosphere

Advanced orbit rank: Get a VTOL in a stable orbit around Kerbin

Expert orbital rank: Carry a satellite in a VTOL, get the VTOL in a stable orbit around Kerbin, release the satellite, and return the Kerbal operating the VTOL back to Kerbin safely.

Victorian rank: Impress Me.

Have fun with the challenge!

[SRB]

I see the gist of the challenge, but I see someone trying to do the orbital challenger with a Falcon 9/Dragon type craft that uses rocket to land the stage and parachutes for the capsule-just an FYI

[Rocket In My Pocket]

I'm hoping to maybe get the "impress me" award with this one lol. I built it awhile back, and I'm actually happy to get an excuse to share it before the stock robotics DLC comes along and makes it kind of not so impressive anymore lol.

Being a prototype, it barely flies, and doesn't even have enough fuel to comfortably make the island run. As far as being a VTOL, it isn't anything great, however; it has stock swing mount engines! (It's 100% stock really, besides the cockpit, which is the old Mk1 airplane cockpit before they changed it. I hope that falls within the "no mods" rule, as it is technically a stock part, it's just not in the game anymore.)

It's a bit awkward to fly and definitely still needs tuning, maybe a complete re-design. The concept is neat, and I hope; impressive, but it's definitely not practical lol. I think, whatever weight savings you get by using the same engines to VTOL and fly, is offset by the weight of the bearing assembly. The bearing mechanism however is quite robust, and fairly reliable. Usable mid flight, and only requires "jiggling" every once in awhile. (If it get's jammed because you forgot to set the actuators back to neutral though; "smoke if 'em if you got 'em", because you're going down.)

"TheSwordfishMk1PrototypeVTOL" (Not sure why I named it swordfish, it doesn't particularly look like one. Honestly I can't remember, lol. I'd be open to re-naming suggestions if someone had one.)

My final VTOL landing could have been a lot better lol, I started too high up, plus the whole thing is off balance towards the nose. (Protip: This is why you name things "prototypes" so you never actually have to finish them or make them work completely right. )

Edited May 14, 2019 by Rocket In My Pocket

[vyznev]

13 hours ago, VictoryNeverFail said:

Advanced atmospheric rank: Fly a VTOL 60km above sea level or higher

Basic orbital rank: Fly a VTOL out of the atmosphere

Given that Kerbin's atmosphere ends at 70 km ASL, and that there's almost no air above 60 km anyway, I see no real difference between these ranks. If you can make it to 60 km, you can almost certainly make it to 70 km too.

Perhaps the limit for the "advanced atmospheric rank" would be better set somewhere around 30 km (about the altitude where rapiers flame out, IIRC) or 40 km (to make it a bit more challenging) above sea level?

[VictoryNeverFail]

7 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

I'm hoping to maybe get the "impress me" award with this one lol. I built it awhile back, and I'm actually happy to get an excuse to share it before the stock robotics DLC comes along and makes it kind of not so impressive anymore lol.

Being a prototype, it barely flies, and doesn't even have enough fuel to comfortably make the island run. As far as being a VTOL, it isn't anything great, however; it has stock swing mount engines! (It's 100% stock really, besides the cockpit, which is the old Mk1 airplane cockpit before they changed it. I hope that falls within the "no mods" rule, as it is technically a stock part, it's just not in the game anymore.)

It's a bit awkward to fly and definitely still needs tuning, maybe a complete re-design. The concept is neat, and I hope; impressive, but it's definitely not practical lol. I think, whatever weight savings you get by using the same engines to VTOL and fly, is offset by the weight of the bearing assembly. The bearing mechanism however is quite robust, and fairly reliable. Usable mid flight, and only requires "jiggling" every once in awhile. (If it get's jammed because you forgot to set the actuators back to neutral though; "smoke if 'em if you got 'em", because you're going down.)

"TheSwordfishMk1PrototypeVTOL" (Not sure why I named it swordfish, it doesn't particularly look like one. Honestly I can't remember, lol. I'd be open to re-naming suggestions if someone had one.)

My final VTOL landing could have been a lot better lol, I started too high up, plus the whole thing is off balance towards the nose. (Protip: This is why you name things "prototypes" so you never actually have to finish them or make them work completely right. )

The prototype looks a bit awkward to control, but since you have completed the challenge, You get the Basic Atmospheric Rank for now. You can try the challenge again for a better rank if you want! Good luck with it!

[swjr-swis]

Does this one count?

Spoiler

see the dropbox video for VTOL footage

https://www.dropbox.com/home/KSP/113/video?preview=KSP113-FlyingBrickToo.mp4

https://kerbalx.com/swjr-swis/FlyingBrickToo

 

Or this one

Spoiler

 

https://www.dropbox.com/home/KSP/113/video?preview=KSP113-SpinAgain1.mp4

https://kerbalx.com/swjr-swis/SpinAgain2

 

Maybe this?

Spoiler

 

https://kerbalx.com/swjr-swis/UFO-Mk2

 

Fair warning: they were all made several versions of KSP ago, so they may not work quite the way they did back then.

 

[VictoryNeverFail]

1 hour ago, swjr-swis said:

Does this one count?

  Hide contents

see the dropbox video for VTOL footage

https://www.dropbox.com/home/KSP/113/video?preview=KSP113-FlyingBrickToo.mp4

https://kerbalx.com/swjr-swis/FlyingBrickToo

 

Or this one

  Hide contents

 

https://www.dropbox.com/home/KSP/113/video?preview=KSP113-SpinAgain1.mp4

https://kerbalx.com/swjr-swis/SpinAgain2

 

Maybe this?

  Hide contents

 

https://kerbalx.com/swjr-swis/UFO-Mk2

 

Fair warning: they were all made several versions of KSP ago, so they may not work quite the way they did back then.

These are great crafts, but I'm kinda confused on what kind of rank you are going for, show me pics of the flight or a short video. For now, I'll reward you with the Basic Atmospheric Rank

 

[vyznev]

I was aiming for the Expert rank with this thing, but it's not quite there yet. Still, at least it makes it to space.

One issue I ran into that I really didn't expect was the lack of intake air. Normally, that's pretty much never a problem in modern KSP versions, but it turns out that things are different when you're trying to take off vertically at 0 m/s. I ended up with two Wheesley engines and six air intakes crammed into the cargo bay just to get sufficient thrust for a vertical takeoff.

Anyway, this design still definitely needs some tweaking to do what it's supposed to do. In the mean time, here's the craft file for this experimental vehicle: https://pastebin.com/pPvZj5zC

Also, here's some more screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/cERmVs7

[VictoryNeverFail]

1 hour ago, vyznev said:

I was aiming for the Expert rank with this thing, but it's not quite there yet. Still, at least it makes it to space.

One issue I ran into that I really didn't expect was the lack of intake air. Normally, that's pretty much never a problem in modern KSP versions, but it turns out that things are different when you're trying to take off vertically at 0 m/s. I ended up with two Wheesley engines and six air intakes crammed into the cargo bay just to get sufficient thrust for a vertical takeoff.

Anyway, this design still definitely needs some tweaking to do what it's supposed to do. In the mean time, here's the craft file for this experimental vehicle: https://pastebin.com/pPvZj5zC

Also, here's some more screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/cERmVs7

The craft does look like a work in progress, but since you got it to space, I'll give you the "Basic Orbital Rank" good luck on aiming higher.

[swjr-swis]

16 hours ago, VictoryNeverFail said:

These are great crafts, but I'm kinda confused on what kind of rank you are going for, show me pics of the flight or a short video. For now, I'll reward you with the Basic Atmospheric Rank

I posted video links for two of the craft (the dropbox links). The other has extensive picture albums of flight linked on its KerbalX craft page.

"Basic Atmospheric Rank" is quite alright.

[Tapeta]

Hello

this is my very first VTOL. I created it in my career play throught and as you can see, it is very low tech aeroplane. This tiny thing helped me to gain those sweet sweet science points and so it proved itself in the field.

(at 6:35 I messed up and nearly crashed, due to excessive backward tilt during hovering)

 

[Rus-Evo]

Does it have to land with engines or will chutes do?

[Guest]

On 5/14/2019 at 1:13 PM, ErinBensen said:

I see the gist of the challenge, but I see someone trying to do the orbital challenger with a Falcon 9/Dragon type craft that uses rocket to land the stage and parachutes for the capsule-just an FYI

Yer, maybe need to specify it be a single stage craft. I don’t like the idea of parachutes either  

[sturmhauke]

On 5/15/2019 at 3:23 AM, vyznev said:

One issue I ran into that I really didn't expect was the lack of intake air. Normally, that's pretty much never a problem in modern KSP versions, but it turns out that things are different when you're trying to take off vertically at 0 m/s.

I'm not sure if precoolers are good for cooling anything, but they're great for low speed air intake.

[swjr-swis]

12 minutes ago, sturmhauke said:

I'm not sure if precoolers are good for cooling anything

Well, they're not as good as radiators, but their (purposely) modified thermal parameters make them soak up heat and radiate it better than most other parts.

[Klapaucius]

Like @Rocket In My Pocket, this is a stock craft I have had sitting around for a while (though without the complicated and gnarly bearings), so this challenge seemed like a good excuse to dust it off.  It is a real challenge to land, but today I tried again and succeeded!  Because the Goliaths take so long to spool up, if you cut too much power and start descending too fast, you may not be able to slow down in time.  So you have to make small adjustments and think ahead.

I confess I made sure I quicksaved while landing,  and the video does not show that there were four attempts before success.  Normally I like my craft to be easily landable with SAS off, but I did not try that today on this one, though takeoff is fine without.  The idea was that it could land either nose up or down (which is why there is the landing gear on both ends), but the weight balance favours nose down.

 

I think I might name it Jethro since I've been back on a Jethro Tull kick over the past few days.

 

NOTE: The airstrip is the KSC in @Gameslinx's truly stunning Beyond Home planet pack.

 

Edited June 11, 2019 by Klapaucius